Underlying these and other complications is the pump that brings blood to and from the heart. This layer, called the myocardium, is the muscular tissue that drives your heart and keeps it beating.

Fueling that muscle — as well as nearly any function your body requires — are tiny organelles called mitochondria. Those little energy powerhouses convert energy from the carbohydrates and fats you eat into adenosine triphosphate (ATP), your body’s energy currency.

To do that — to create that constant energy your heart, and most other organs, like your brain, liver, and lungs, demand to work optimally — those mitochondria need a steady nutrient supply.

CoQ10 and Heart Health

“Interestingly, the most important muscle in the body—the heart—- has the greatest concentration of CoQ10,” says Stephen Sinatra, MD, in The Great Cholesterol Myth, who adds that the heart “literally just gobbles the stuff up.”

Consider oxidative stress, a massive driver for heart disease. A certain amount of free radicals are normal and even healthy, but excessive amounts can damage mitochondria, making them perform less efficiently.

Any type of heart disease (like many other conditions) is complex and multifactorial. Multiple factors — including dietary and lifestyle factors — contribute to and exacerbate this condition. Yet CoQ10 can benefit many of these factors, including inflammation, oxidative stress, and mitochondrial dysfunction.

If your doctor prescribed a statin, you should consider supplementing with CoQ10. That’s because statin drugs block a pathway that produces CoQ10, and therefore can deplete CoQ10 levels.

CoQ10 – Not Only For Your Heart

If heart health was CoQ10’s only claim to fame, it would be a bona fide rock star. Fortunately, this powerhouse nutrient can benefit nearly every condition that requires energy-producing mitochondria, which is to say nearly every function in your body.

“When CoQ10 levels fall, so does our general health,” says Sinatra and Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., in The Great Cholesterol Myth. “CoQ10 is used in the energy-producing metabolic pathways of every cell. It’s a very powerful antioxidant, combating oxidative damage from free radicals, protecting your cell membranes, proteins and DNA… Without CoQ10, our bodies simply can’t survive.”

Researchers find that people with neurodegenerative diseases; fibromyalgia; diabetes; cancer; mitochondrial diseases; and muscular diseases have low CoQ10 levels. Optimizing those levels could benefit those and other conditions.

A full list of conditions that CoQ10 supplementing could improve surpasses this article’s scope, but includes:

Weight loss. While this probably won’t become the latest “magic” fat burner, supplementing with CoQ10 can help nudge your weight in a healthy direction. Among this supplement’s benefits for weight loss include lowering oxidative stress, improving fat metabolism, and optimizing blood glucose and insulin levels.

CoQ10 Supplements

Your body makes a little bit of CoQ10, and you can also get some from food. The average person gets about three to six milligrams (mg) of CoQ10 a day from foods like meat, poultry, fish, nuts, and seeds. To get the aforementioned therapeutic benefits, however, you’ll need to supplement.

Most people feel more fatigue, for instance, as they get older. One small randomized controlled trial gave people aged 70 or older 200 mg of CoQ10 along with 100 mg of selenium daily for four years. Participants who supplemented consistently reported increased vitality, physical performance, and quality of life.

If you and your healthcare practitioner agree that CoQ10 supplements are ideal for your condition, consider a few caveats. CoQ10 absorbs poorly. In fact, we only absorb about five percent of many CoQ10 supplements.

Look For a Quality Supplement

Quality matters with all supplements, but especially with CoQ10. In one study, researchers tested seven supplements each containing 100 mg of CoQ10. The difference in absorption among the seven products was statistically significant. The right CoQ10 supplement, however, can benefit numerous conditions. One study found 50 mg twice daily can decrease those statin-related problems and improve the ability to perform daily activities.

Most studies use around 100 – 200 mg of CoQ10 daily. Side effects are rare with this supplement, but higher doses could create symptoms like stomach upset, nausea, irritability, and mild insomnia.

CoQ10 Works Synergistically with Other Nutrients

As the aforementioned study with selenium showed, CoQ10 plays very well with other nutrients, working synergistically to optimize energy production and overall health. Another nutrient that works with CoQ10 is alpha-lipoic acid (or lipoic acid), a naturally occurring short-chain fatty acid that plays a vital role in many mitochondrial enzyme complexes.

CoQ10 Saftey

Overall, CoQ10 supplements are usually well-tolerated, even at high doses of up to 1,200 mg a day (far more than you’ll actually take).

While CoQ10 (along with other antioxidants like lipoic acid), is safe for most individuals, please talk with your healthcare practitioner if you have these or other adverse side effects. CoQ10 could impact certain medications including warfarin (Coumadin).

As with any nutrient, dietary, and lifestyle factors matter. To maximize the heart-health and other benefits of CoQ10 (along with other antioxidants like lipoic acid), you’ll need to incorporate our Advanced Plan, which includes sufficient amounts of healthy fat, moderate protein, and the right carbohydrates.

You’ll also want to get great sleep (take a supplement if you have trouble falling or staying asleep), manage stress levels, get the right exercise, and incorporate other factors that optimize heart health.

When you’re doing all that, using a professional-quality CoQ10 supplement in the correct dosage — especially as a synergistic blend with other nutrients — can provide powerful support for heart health and so much more.

Discuss including these and/or any other additional supplements with your healthcare practitioner. Never modify any medications or other medical advice without your healthcare practitioner’s consent.